At Karl Johans Gate, Oslo's main shopping thoroughfare, the Observer conducted its own European referendum. Although rudimentary and with few scientific outcomes, it was a telling snapshot of a European nation that dares to exist and flourish outside the European Union.

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It says something about the enfeebled state of the British economy when the Treasury can take comfort from a forecast from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that growth will be just 0.9% next year.

David Cameron is to tell the president of the European council in Brussels that a compromise plan for the EU budget is unacceptable because it includes drastic cuts to Britain's multibillion pound rebate.

Vladimir Putin reacted angrily to the German chancellor Angela Merkel's questioning of the two-year jail sentence for the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot on Friday, telling her that a member the group had once committed an anti-Semitic act.